After a wet morning’s sailing, there was a hint of blue skies for the afternoon’s round the lake pennat race in aid of the RNLI. However, with a westerly force 3 blowing there was every likelihood of some interesting wind shifts after passing through Scarness.
William Carruthers and Alan Smith in a Flying 15 were clear ahead at the first mark and used their own gust machine (or so the Sailing Secretary reckoned) to reach the bottom end of the lake in just 33 minutes, some 8 minutes ahead of the next boat. In their wake they left a mixed bag of fortunes; Miles Middleton in his Flying 15 held a good second position near St Bega’s church to find himself chasing lasers and GP14s by the time he reached the 2nd mark. Similarly, John Sharp worked through to lead the rest of the GP14s for a while.
Having to sail to marks in the shade of the hills resulted in many suffering major unpredictable windshifts on their way back up the lake. William Carruthers after losing some of the advantage gained on the outward leg, managed to regain some ground to finish 9 minutes ahead of Andrew Smith in a laser after 1½ hours sailing.
Overall results were calculated on a personal handicap basis
1st William Carruthers and Alan Smith (FF)
2nd Phil Smith (Laser)
3rd Andrew Smith (Laser)
The morning races concluded some long series. The overall winners are listed below
F15 Blencathra Trophy – William Carruthers and Alan Smith
Laser Dodd Trophy – Andrew Smith
GP14 Mustard Pot – Mike Fairlamb and Mike Cowan